Is this a good laptop for at least $900

ChrisTaylor6

Honorable
Jun 15, 2013
5
0
10,510
Hello, my criteria are 15.6 inch screen, my budget is under 1 thousand, used for college and games( COD Black ops2, counterstrike GO, starcraft 2, diablo 3) and watching videos, planned to lasted for 3-4 years, I want the external case to look professional without any patterns.

I will like to know if this laptop is worth the $950 tax included?

Sager NP2650 (Clevo W650SZ)
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Sager Screen (SKU - S1P318)
- Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache) (SKU – SPU201)
- -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
- Intel® HD 4600 Graphics
- 4GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4D222P)
- 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software
- Sager - Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - SWF801)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included (Supports up to 16GB of RAM)) + MS Office 2013 Trial

One last question is 4gb ram good enough for some games. Will it matter, I mean I could buy more ram later and install it myself right?
 

James Devenberg

Honorable
May 22, 2013
31
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10,590
You can spec an HP Envy TouchSmart 15 Quad Edition better than this and right now you can use coupon codes summer20 for laptops $999 or more, summer25 for $1199 or more, and summer30 for $1399 or more to get 20%, 25% or 30% off.

So right now for $915 you can get:
Windows 8 64
4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700MQ Processor
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1920x1080)
8GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
1TB 5400RPM Hybrid Hard Drive
24GB mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
No Additional Office Software
No additional security software
6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
No Internal DVD or CD Drive
Backlit Keyboard
HP TrueVision HD Webcam w/ integrated digital mic
802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)

Key advantages over the Sager for gaming are discrete Nvidia GPU and 8 GB of RAM. You get Windows 8, which is a bit faster than 7 and with Classic Shell looks and acts just like 7. The SSD Cache and hybrid hard drive combo will make you forget the disks are only spinning at 5400 rpm. Right now, because of that coupon, its tough to find better specs than this HP for $900.
 

edit1754

Distinguished
May 14, 2012
232
0
18,910
If gaming is a primary interest of yours, then you can do much better than Intel HD 4600 graphics. Look for something that comes with a decent dedicated GPU. Game performance generally depends significantly more on the GPU than on any other component.

Take a look at some of these:

**Sager NP7352** (NVIDIA GTX 765M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte) - **$1046**
- http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7352-clevo-w350st-p-5842.html?wconfigure=yes
- Scroll down to Operating System and select Windows. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are both offered.

**Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p** (NVIDIA GT 750M GDDR5, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte) - **$949**
- Create a free account and sign in, at the Barnes and Noble Gold discount page: http://shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/na/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/Lenovo:EnterStdAffinity?affinity=barnesnoblegold
- Take this model: http://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/?sb=:000001C9:0000ECB3:
- Or this model: http://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/index.html?sb=:000001C9:0000ECB0: (adds 24GB mSATA SSD for HDD-Caching/Acceleration)
- Avoid models that come with the 1366x768 display, and not the 1920x1080 display.
- Reports indicate that, unlike the Y500, a solution (albeit a *manual* one) exists to switch from using the dedicated NVIDIA GT 750M to the integrated Intel HD graphics, in order to improve battery life.

**Lenovo IdeaPad Y500** (NVIDIA GT 750M GDDR5, 15.6" 1920x1080) - **$809**
- Create a free account and sign in, at the Barnes and Noble Gold discount page (Yahoo Answers has inconveniently limiting constraints on number of links per post)
- Take this model: http://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y500/?sb=:000001C9:0000C50A:
- Avoid models that come with the 1366x768 display, and not the 1920x1080 display.
- Note: less battery life than some laptops due to lack of NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics support, but larger than average capacity battery makes it not too bad.

**MSI GE60** (NVIDIA GTX 660M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte) - **$929**
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152393 ($929)
- For $999 model that may net you gains in the handful of more CPU-intensive games out there, take the above URL and change the on the end to a 2. Again, Yahoo Answers' link limits.

**Sager NP6652** (NVIDIA GT 750M GDDR3, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte+IPS) - **$988**
- http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6652-clevo-w650sr-p-5846.html?wconfigure=yes
- Scroll down to Operating System and select Windows. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are both offered.

**Toshiba Satellite P50** (NVIDIA GT 740M, 15.6" 1920x1080) - **$849**
- http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cdetland.to?poid=2000098991

**Sager NP4650** (NVIDIA GT 740M, 15.6" 1920x1080 matte+IPS) - **$949**
- http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np4650-clevo-w650sh-p-5997.html?wconfigure=yes
- Scroll down to Operating System and select Windows. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are both offered.
 

ChrisTaylor6

Honorable
Jun 15, 2013
5
0
10,510
Thank you both for the reply.

I was really interested with the options you both had gave me and look it up.

My option is leaning toward the Msi because of the operating system ( but i do not really like the exterior look). I never tried windows 8 but have heard bad reviews and rumors. So let me know what you think. Also, I do not know about the reliability of Lenovo, it is a china base company and the customer services is questionable.

Also my sister had a toshiba laptop along time ago that overheats consistently that left me with a terrible image of tohiba laptop. however it looks like a competition between the three. I have researched MSI a couple of weeks ago and it was mostly great review about their build and quality for gaming laptop. The toshiba and lenovo seems like a good match and a price around my range, but I do not know about their reliability and how durable.

I try looking up the Toshiba but haven't found any review and the lenovo ideapad have mixed feelings, but mainly praising their thinkpad more than ideapad.